Has there been a thread about this? Horrifying story about what can happen when someone becomes addicted to the internet

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Rather upsetting story in The Telegraph.

I don't understand why her prison sentence was suspended and also am at a bit of a loss as to why the children didn't do more to help themselves. The oldest is 13.

But absolutely staggering that someone could become so addicted ...

Very sad indeed.

Terrible reporting

This women needed some help and noone was arsed to give it to her

Reflection on us all

i don't necessarily agree with that cory. it depends on how mature the child was

at 13 i am not sure i would have done anything if i'd been in that situation. as lougle says, they'd have been scared that their mum would be taken away...

Why couldn't the 13 year old feed the dogs?

maybe they ran out of food?
i have no idea....

this is it though, we don't know the entire story.

Poor, poor kids.
She's banned from keeping animals but trusted with children?
Makes sense.

She let her dogs starve to death and left the rotting corpses in the dining room. Presumably the children managed to feed themselves otherwise they would have starved to death also.

I'm struggling to find any sympathy at all for this woman. Amazing that you're all jumping to her defence.

I don't think anyone is jumping to her defence. Just trying to say that there has to be much MUCH more to this story than is reported here.

No sympathy here either... Not for the mother anyway.

"this is it though, we don't know the entire story".

which is exactly my point. We don't know the entire story and yet the bald facts are incredibly shocking. So you might expect more from the Telegraph: they have reported the facts, where is the investigation in to the back story?

The kids may well have been depressed themselves, surely. That could explain why they didn't take proactive steps to get help.

Exactly, DirtyMartini :(

There was a case recently in Japan I think: a young couple allowed their baby to starve because addicted to a role-playing computer game.

wrong

Wasn't the mother in the Baby P case also addicted to the www - in her case online gambling?

Very sad.
I can understand the mum being depressed after her DH died, but how sad that no one was close enough to the family to support them.
When my DH died, my mate fed me and my 3, my three wouldn't have been able to cook for themselves as they have autism.
I hope they all get the help they badly need.

There are children involved and the press are not supposed to do / publish anything (like an "investigation into the back story") that could provide any further identifying details about them.

TwasEverThus, I think the bit that sticks with me about that story is that they were feeding and looking after their avatar baby in the game.

She caused her two German Shepherds to starve to death and yet she hasn't been locked up?

Evil bitch, may she rot in hell.

I know, Paisley.

so where were school in all this??

who paid the bills,washed the clothes and did the shopping??

if they simply were not done....then actions would have taken place.....where were friends and relatives??

where did her money come from? presumably on benefits and not working

oh,and speaking as a former police officer....i walked into many a property (or climbed in through a smashed window) where it really did make you retch!! alot of people live in squalor though,i saw alot of this,but they can still appear outwardly very normal and clean. maybe thats whats happened here

Very little sympathy for the woman here.

But also a little confused about why the children - even if they were too afraid of losing their mum to seek outside help - we not able to see to the animals and make themselves some basic meals. DS is only 7 and he knows where the bowls and spoons are kept, for example - why were they eating from the tin without spoons at the ages of 10 and 13?

All very odd.

I can see how easy it would be for children to not say anything. They might be enjoying their freedom, being the ones who are allowed to play out the latest as well as perhaps feeling they might be in trouble for something themselves.

The children would have been terrified that they would lose their mother as well as their father.

That would override everything else, and I expect that was why they did not say anything.

I am posting as a widow and while not condoning what happened in any way, I also think it is terrible that nobody helped that family.

Bereavement has a major effect on your mental health for years.

That poor woman, sounds like she had no support from anywhere. Until tragedy like that strikes NONE of us know how we will react.

The poor kids were too scared to tell anyone as they would end up with no parents at all.

In the future I hope that they NEVER make virtual worlds as there will be many more problems like this.

They would have to be in a special center and NEVER for home use.